Betim, Brazil. Reducing Food Waste also Benefits the Wider Community

One third of all food produced worldwide is wasted

In recent years, the focus on reducing waste from production processes, including food waste at company cafeterias, has been an integral part of the Group’s sustainability efforts.

In Brazil, for example, the Together We Are 20,000 Sustainable Attitudes program and the No Waste campaign were launched to increase employee awareness on the sustainable use of natural resources and the importance of reducing food waste at company cafeterias and how this can generate social and environmental benefits.

At the Betim plant

Prior to the campaign launch, an average of 45.6 grams of food were wasted per person per day at the four cafeterias located at the Group’s Betim plant where approximately 19,500 people work. That amounted to 19 tons of waste a month and 228 tons a year – enough to feed more than 200 people.

The Group then set a target of reducing waste below 40 grams per person at each of the four cafeterias.

The results are monitored on a monthly basis and every time the target is met 10 baskets of food are donated to charities selected by the Árvore da Vida association.

The target was met 10 times over the first 20 months, resulting in 400 baskets of food being donated to 16 charities, including: the Buon Pastore kindergarten in the Imbirucu district which serves over 145 children, and, in the Jardim Teresópolis district, the António Gonçalves Pereira Association where 32 elderly people live and the Ebenézer Association which offers assistance to women with dependency problems.

On the basis of the results achieved, it was decided to lower the target from 40 grams of food waste per person to 35 grams, providing a further incentive for employees to help reduce waste of precious food resources.